IS claims second attack in a week

Islamic State has described Friday’s incident as a suicide attack by one of its supporters at the Dhaka airport intersection Friday night, its second claim of attack in Bangladesh in the window of a week.
However, an eyewitness and the police told the Dhaka Tribune that the man carrying several bombs had died in an explosion right before he was about to enter the booth beside the check post around 8pm.
The blasts shattered the glass windows of the booth where an assistant commissioner of police and an traffic inspector were present at that time.
Three to four persons received minor injuries, according to police.
After around two hours, IS took credit for the attack, its third since the Holey Artisan Bakery massacre and 28th in total since September 2015, through its Arabic Amaq news agency, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based website which monitors online activities of different extremist groups.
IS’ Bangla website at-Tamkin also published the claim.
The same website later published the organisational name of the militant, Abu Muhammad al-Bangali, but falsely claimed that the suicide attacker had been able to kill several policemen and injure some others.
Also Read- Bomber dies in suicide attack on police outpost near Dhaka airport
After the Gulshan attack, the next act of terror IS claimed was on August 23, in which a Hindu devotee was critically injured in a machete attack in Narsingdi.
On March 17, IS claimed its first attack of 2017 when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside an under-construction barrack of Rapid Action Battalion in Ashkona, near the Dhaka airport.
The next day, a man tried to force his way through a RAB check post in Khilgaon where he was gunned down after refusing to comply with orders to stand down. Law enforcers found bombs on his person.
The Salafist terrorist group, however, did not claim responsibility for the Sholakia attack of July 7 last year and several other attacks even though the same outfit, branded New JMB or Neo JMB by the law enforcers, has been found involved.
The suicide attack on the RAB camp came only three days after the terrorist group released a video describing a Bangladeshi suicide bomber who blew himself up in Tikrit, Iraq in October 2015. The bomber had urged his countrymen to carry out lone-wolf attacks.
Both the Ashkona and Dhaka airport attacks were carried out by single attackers.
Earlier, IS claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on an Ahmadiyya mosque in Rajshahi on December 25, 2015.
Police also believe the New JMB suicide squad members were behind the grenade attacks on Navy mosques in Chittagong a week before.
6 policemen killed
The latest incident is the second attack carried out solely targeting the law enforcers and claimed by IS via the Amaq agency.
The first attack on police took place on November 4, 2015 when a constable was stabbed dead, and another injured at a Ashulia check post.
The second attack, on a RAB camp in Ashkona on March 17, is believed to be influenced by the IS video released on March 14. Two RAB members were injured when the attacker detonated the suicide vest.
But members of the same New JMB group were behind at least two more attacks conducted aiming at killing the policemen in which one was killed at a Gabtoli check post on October 22, 2015 and two others at a check post near the Sholakia Eidgah ground on July 7 last year.
Two police officers were also killed in the Holey Artisan attack on July 1.
Suicides to evade arrest
Meanwhile, several other IS supporters linked to the New JMB group including two women committed suicide to avoid arrest.
Tanvir Qadri was the first New JMB member who killed himself during a raid by the law enforcers in their Azimpur den on September 10 last year.
The first female suicide bomber who killed herself on December 24 last year was Shakila, wife of a member of the same outfit. Their seven-year-old daughter was critically injured as the mother blew herself up while coming out of their Ashkona den holding the child, refusing to surrender.
Two more members of the group committed suicide during the recent raid in a den in Sitakunda area of Chittagong on March 16.